When it comes to women’s basketball, many fans know and understand that this version of the sport doesn’t receive much love nor does it receive much recognition that men’s basketball does.
Texas State University decided they wanted to change that in the year of 2017 when they created their first ever Women’s Basketball Club Team formerly known as the Texas State Lady Hustlerz. This was a program that was able to showcase off skills of many female athletes who had love for the game and wanted to keep that momentum going after playing for so many years.
Created by Kenedi Norman and Calen Berry, these two have decided to create a Women’s basketball team because they want female athletes to continue on with their basketball career and not feel like that their basketball career has to be over because they have graduated high school and have decided to not to continue in their college years.
“The meaning behind this program is to have fun, stay in shape, and show our love for hooping”, said Norman. The original team had slowly started to build up a legacy around the campus until COVID-19 hit in 2020 and the team was set to begin preparing for nationals and sadly couldn’t compete due the pandemic that struck. “It does suck that our season was cut so short due to the pandemic, but at least I got to grow and make memories with this team that I know will stay with me forever”, said now senior Samari O’Bryan.
Fast-forward to now, the program has been revived by A.J. Bates, head coach, and Jaylin Glover, president and assistant coach. They have changed the mission of this program and have decided to start from scratch as well by changing the new team name to Texas State Hustle. Following the new changes for the program, the players and new coach; Donté Noel, didn’t expect such a good change. The team has decided to have two separate teams with white being the traveling team and maroon being the home team but both teams help each other strive for a great season. Some of the previous players had either transferred to different schools to play basketball as a D1 athlete, or they were even able to have a walk-on tryout for the school itself. “The mission of this team is to show off the skills that female athletes have so that not only can they have fun and compete but they can also take these lessons with them wherever they go and they can always look back at this opportunity as a big memory as we strive to make our mark with this legacy”, said assistant coach and president Jaylin Glover.
Currently the team is having small tournaments against other schools such as Texas Southern, Texas A&M College Station, Louisiana State University and so much more. With the pre-season slowly coming to an end in the next few weeks, the coaches are making it their mission to prepare this team for not only regionals but to compete for a spot in the nation tournament held in College Park, Maryland. This team is honestly one of the most hard working group of athletes that I have ever seen over the past few weeks and the hard work paid off this past tournament against Louisiana State University and Texas A&M University. “I am so proud of the hard work that the girls put into these practices because 6am practices arent that easy especially going to class right after, but these girls are some troopers and I can’t wait to see what is in store for us this upcoming semester where our actual season officially begins, you don’t want to miss it”, said head coach A.J. Bates. Come out and support the Hustle, follow the team on their instagram to stay posted on upcoming tournaments and like and subscribe to their YouTube page to see even more exclusive content outside of the program to see the team on and off the basketball court. Come and support your Texas State Hustle women’s basketball team, promise you will not be disappointed after watching this team compete for their national title.
